Big Plot Hole In The Movie Gravity

Spoiler Alert: We would like to warn you that this article will reveal to you some plot details of the movie Gravity, which is scheduled for release in the US on the 4th of October.

If you have seen the epic trailers for Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, you are probably waiting anxiously for the film to hit theatres. It looks like the movie is going to be a big hit, even if the story doesn’t make any sense. Yes, the movie is nonsense. That’s according to real astronaut Michael Massimino.

Massimino has been on missions for repairing the Hubble Space Telescope, just like the characters played by George Clooney and Sandra Bullock in Gravity. In the film, something bad happens while the astronauts are spacewalking. After that our floating astronauts have no other way to escape death except flying to the ISS via jetpack. But that’s where it doesn’t make any sense, because flying to the space station would be impossible even for space shuttles:

As we recall from bitter memory, the Hubble and the space station are in vastly different orbits. Getting from one to the other requires so much energy that not even space shuttles had enough fuel to do it. The telescope is 353 miles high, in an orbit that keeps it near the Equator; the space station is about 100 miles lower, in an orbit that takes it far north, over Russia.

To have the movie astronauts Matt Kowalski (Mr. Clooney) and Ryan Stone (Ms. Bullock) zip over to the space station would be like having a pirate tossed overboard in the Caribbean swim to London.

So, what’s shown in Gravity will only happen in the movie. Of course, it’s only a movie – but a lack of realism might spoil it for some.

What are your thoughts about this plot hole in Gravity? Leave your comments below.

10 comments

It is supposed to be only entertainment, not a theoretical physics presentation at l’Académie des Sciences de Paris by Dr. Michio Kaku. If the effects are well done, if there is something of a credible plot, and the acting/directing is good. What else should we expect? Judging from the people involved I am in for it.

The male
astronaut lets himself go into to the abyss of space. She chould have
reached down and grabbed the rope with one hand. Not to mention there
was no reason for the force pulling him away, as they were both
travelling at the same speed at that point, not to mention that all
forces were acting on both astronauts, which should have sumed to a
resultant for between them of 0.

More spoilers!!!!

Many issue are shown in the movie like the disintergration of space
junk and the dangers of space junk in space. Believe it or not, a number
of Satellites have been shot down like the movie suggest, as the movie
suggests Space junk is extremely dangerous.

Newton’s 3rd Law of
motion is applied liberally in many situations, especially the fire
extinguisher scenario. For every action there is an equal and opposite
reaction. I believe that could be another plot hole? Fire Extinguisher was designed for a presurised environment was then operated in a Vaccum could explode?

One last thing, this scenario of space junk going out
of control is entirely possible. NASA currently tracks the big pieces,
(the space stations themselves are protected from the small pieces much
in the same way as body armour) however if large pieces of junk were
added very quickly and without warning, with other satellites nearby,
then this scenario could easily occur. Also worth mentioning is that it
could reach a Critical level where there is soo much space junk that any
new satellites sent will be disintergrated instantly. Effectively make
space inaccessible until it is cleaned up.

Not only that but why would pieces of destroyed satellites suddenly start traveling at speeds greater than everything else within the same orbit? They would simply break apart and the pieces would orbit at the same rate.

No big deal. I actually thought of this too and just presumed that they had brought the Hubble into the lower orbit for some reason. No matter the movie you must suspend a little bit off reality to be able to immerse and enjoy it.

That’s not a plot hole. A plot hole is something that would be improbable given the setup of the movie. The movie establishes that the various space stations are in the same orbit and close to each other (and even if that’s not true in reality, it can be in the movie). That’s not impossible or improbable in the context of the movie.

if it’s just the position of the space station, you’re making a good point. But the matter is that the laws of physics are not applied in the movie and the movie doesn’t establish that laws of physics aren’t applicable for this movie so that actually is a plot hole

But hey Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt won 2 Oscars in that senseless tale……. Even in space suits Mr Clooney and Ms Bullock have far more chemistry. Three thumbs up (and I have tickets for the 10 pm IMAX show!)